


Lose It

by exhaustedwerewolf



Series: 30 Day Post Challenge [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthdays, Established Relationship, Fluff & Angst, Hurt & Comfort, M/M, but mainly fluff, homesick!Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 23:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8508910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exhaustedwerewolf/pseuds/exhaustedwerewolf
Summary: Keith wants to give Lance a great birthday. Things don't quite go according to plan.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: galaxy

"Lance's birthday is two days away." Pidge announced, spread out languidly on the bed, without looking up from the laptop that was balanced precariously at the end of it.

"What?" Keith asked, sitting up abruptly from leaning against the bedpost and twisting around awkwardly.

"It just occurred to me that you might not know." Pidge replied, feet kicking in the air casually, fingers flying over the keyboard. "Usually Lance is the type to casually mention that his birthday is coming up to absolutely anyone who'll listen, but I guess it's harder to keep track when you're in space."

Keith groaned, burying his head in his hands.

"I had no idea. Why did nobody tell me?"

"Did you ever ask?" Pidge inquired helpfully. Keith ignored this question.

"Did you say two days? As in, the day after tomorrow, two days?"

Pidge nodded distractedly, hitting the enter key with a flourish.

"Oh my God, my boyfriend's birthday is in two days."

"You gonna get him a present?"

Keith threw a pillow, but missed.

x x x

Keith spent the next twenty four hours racking his brains. He was so distracted, he was easily disarmed by a training droid, much to Lance's amusement.

"That was incredible!" He laughed without reserve, holding out a hand to help him up. "You skidded like ten feet, oh my God!"

Keith looked up at him blankly. Inside his head, he was screaming at him; _What do you want?!_ But it wasn't as simple as that. Keith could think of plenty of things Lance might want, even some things he might love; but his choices were significantly narrowed down on account of being confined to a spaceship travelling at light speed hundreds of galaxies away from the planet earth. _Yeah,_ he thought, a touch bitterly, watching Lance's back as he shared a joke with Shiro. _That kind of made it a little harder._

It wasn't until dinner that night, tuning out the comforting chatter of his teammates that an idea struck him, and he slammed his cutlery to the table in a moment of excitement, and had no idea what to say when the others turned to him, perplexed.

x x x

"Keith, if this is your way of telling me this is your thing," Lance said, fiddling with his blindfold, "That's totally cool, but-"

"Hell no!" Keith exclaimed, pulling Lance along a little moe roughly then was perhaps strictly necessary.

"You don't have to be embarrassed-" Lance began, affecting a sultry tone, but Keith interrupted him.

"Lance, I am perfectly capable of leading you straight into a wall."

"Okay, shutting up now."

Keith rolled his eyes, and they proceeded awkwardly down several more hallways, bickering occasionally, until they reached their destination. As the doors hissed open, Keith took a steadying breath.

"Alright, you can take it off."

The pair were standing in a spacious room, typical to the Castle of Lions, all clean white surfaces and electric blue decals, save for its centre. A blanket, plates and food had been meticulously set out- and judging by its mouthwatering appearance, Keith had somehow talked Hunk into cooking for the pair of them. Keith leant away for a moment to flick a switch, and Lance recognised the opening bars of a song he'd mentioned offhandedly to Keith months ago.

"Keith," Lance grinned, bringing his hand to his lips to kiss. "You're such a loser. Thank you."

"There's more," Keith assured him, dropping his hand and retreating alone back to the doorway. "Go look out the window."

Lance cocked his head in confusion, but strode over to the window anyway.

"Pretty dark out there, as always." He said, watching his reflection crack an awkward smile.

"How about now?"

A click, and then- Keith has turned out the lights, the thought barely surfaced, because all Lance could see was stars, brighter, more colourful than he would've thought possible. Once, his family had gone camping in the wilderness, miles from any natural light, and he'd thought then that he must've been looking at all the stars in the universe. Right now, he could say with confidence that he must be looking at a thousand- no, a million times more.

He didn't notice Keith coming to stand by his side, until he felt his hand on his shoulder.

"Do you like it?" He asked. Lance glanced sideways at him, and could see the starlights in his eyes.

"How did you manage this? This isn't what it's normally-"

"I know," Lance could hear the barest trace of excitement in Keith's voice. "I got Allura to slow the ship down, for a little while. You don't see much at light speed, right?"

Lance leant his head on Keith's shoulder, though he had to bend down awkwardly a little to do so.

"It's beautiful." He said quietly, his voice almost lost in the music.

"Who's the dork now?" Keith teased, turning his face to kiss Lance's head. "Happy birthday, dork."

They stood in silence for a few moments before Keith felt Lance's shoulders shaking.

"Hey, Lance?" Keith shifted, and Lance drew up, still facing the window. He was forced to lean forward, and it was difficult to tell in the darkness, but; "Oh my God, Lance, are you crying?" A single, shaky sob confirmed his fears. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, this was a stupid idea-"

"No," Lance cut him off, voice thick. "It's not that at all, I just-" The stars blurred and trembled through his tears, and Keith wrapped an arm around him. There were so many colours, pinks and blues and greens, like the shapes behind closed eyelids, like frozen fireworks, the kind the McClains would set off every year on Christmas Eve-

"I miss home! I miss earth!" He choked out, burying his face in Keith's jacket. "It's my birthday, and as far as my family is concerned, I'm a missing persons case! My parents, my brothers and sisters... They don't even know that I'm alive." He felt Keith's hand on his back, and took a shuddering breath. "Mamá... Papá... everyone... they don't know if they'll ever see me again. I don't know if they'll ever see me again!And..." He resurfaced, and looked out again, into the sea of stars. "They're so far away."

Keith watched as a tear slid down his cheek and clung to his chin. He could smell the saltiness of them, and it was making his throat close up.

"They're so far away, Keith." Lance mumbled, and Keith couldn't help but feel like he was watching someone talking to themselves. "Like, so stupidly far. I just want to be with them. So, so bad."

The song that had been playing ended, and for a heartbeat, there was total silence before the next began.

In that moment, Keith grabbed Lance and kissed him hard.

When he drew away, he wiped a tear from Lance's face with his thumb. The next song was kicking in, all soft piano.

"I'm sorry." He said, sincerely, if a little breathlessly. "I'm sorry I can't get you to them."

"S'not your fault," Lance sniffled, giving him a wobbly smile. "You didn't ask to save the universe either, am I right?"

The music picked up, and Keith took Lance's hands and led him a few steps away from the window.

"Where now?" Lance asked, bewildered, and Keith smiled awkwardly.

"Haven't you been threatening for months now to teach me to dance?"

The corner of Lance's mouth quirked up, and he let go of Keith's hand for a moment to pass his sleeve across his face.

"Okay, but I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for."

Two paladins didn't so much dance as stumble their way around the cavernous white room, their laughter gradually growing louder, and the galaxy was their stage.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If anyone is interested, the songs I was imagining were EASE by Troye Sivan, and Lose It (hence the title) by Oh Wonder.


End file.
